doppelganger

Somewhere in the hills of Southern California Irma (Barbara Crampton) is acting as caretaker and psychologist to a meek shut in named Janine (Sarah Hagan). Irma puts Janine through hypnosis sessions, sensory tests, and yoga lessons. “It seems so easy now,” Irma says, “but that wasn't always so.” Having exhibited obedience and lucidity Janine is allowed to venture into the outside world unattended. On one of these trips she encounters Savannah (Sara Malakul Lane).

“Jigoku” is both an incredible and truly bizarre film. The director of the movie, Nobuo Nakagawa, made 97 films over the course of his career, which is an ungodly large number by American standards (only two other of his films are easily available in the States, i.e. "The Ghost Story of Yotsuya" and "Snake Woman’s Curse"). If you think of a current director like Quentin Tarantino maybe making one movie every four years, many Japanese directors at the time, were making four or more movies every single year.

A group of pirates hijack a boat to steal it’s cargo and in the process maliciously gun down everyone on board. Months later the ship continues to reappear off the coast and a young girl named Yoriko feels strangely drawn to this ghost ship. She makes her way on board to find out her twin sister was among those who had been murdered, and soon afterwards the gunmen begin to die one at a time.

Possession is a hard movie to describe. So much about this movie is purposely ambiguous that I really can’t begin to recount a coherent plot. However, that is perfectly fine, because this movie is more about the experience of the character’s collective descent into complete insanity, than it is about telling a cohesive story.